Measuring and Validating Emotional Intelligence as Performance or Self-Report

This is a study of emotional intelligence (EI). EI was measured by performance and self-report tasks. Data were also obtained on basic values, some standard personality dimensions such as those specified in the five-factor model, social adjustment and several scales of impression management. Criteria were loneliness, work-family life balance and Internet addiction, and also measures of emotional and value deviance. Participants were college students in a business education program who participated anonymously in the extensive test session, which took about six hours to complete. It was found that EI measures - both self-report and performance - intercorrelated as expected, and that EI was strongly related as expected to criteria. People high in EI reported less loneliness, less Internet addiction and better work/studies - leisure/family balance. Impression management was more strongly related to self-report data than to performance. Self-report data were to a large extent accounted for by measures of personality according to the five-factor model, but performance measures were not. Finally, the extent of faking was measured and controlled for.emotional intelligence; personality; five-factor model; and impression management

Lifestyles and consumer behavior

In this article, the concept of lifestyle is traced to its early roots in personality psychology and in marketing. In the latter field, many commercial marketing firms have made strong claims as to the explanatory power of lifestyle dimensions, often based on procedures which have been kept secret, but researchers have seldom been able to verify such claims. In spite of this, the approach is very popular, has wide credibility and is often given very favorable media coverage. Probably because of this, it is often considered as a very important and promising approach by administrators working with the regulation of risk and risk communication. It may also be credible in some quarters because it affords a way of ‘explaining’ risk perception as being non-rational. In this paper, we give results from an empirical study of nuclear waste risk perception which is related to a basic risk perception model and three approaches to lifestyles: Kahle’s List of Values, a Swedish adaptation of the ‘Agorame´trie’ approach suggested by a group of French researchers, and Dake and Wildavsky’s Cultural Theory dimensions. It was found that nuclear waste risk perception could be modeled successfully with risk attitudes and perception data (basic model about 65% of the variance explained), but that lifestyle dimensions added virtually nothing to the explanatory power of the model.consumer behavior; lifestyle; risk

Affective and rational consumer choice modes: The role of intuition, analytical decision-making, and attitudes to money

This paper was motivated by a paucity of research addressing how consumer decision-making is related to beliefs about money and different modes of reasoning. To investigate this issue, data were collected from 142 participants, who filled out questionnaires involving scales aimed to measure affective and rational purchase approaches, intuitive and analytical decision-making styles, as well as money attitudes. One finding was that consumers interchangeably rely on affective and rational approaches when interacting with the marketplace. Another finding was that those approaches were not only related to either intuitive or analytical decision-making styles but also to money attitudes. The findings are argued to provide an impetus to continuous investigation of the role of decision-making styles and money beliefs for consumer choice modes.affect; attitudes to money; consumer choice; decision-making; intuition; shopping orientation; reasoning

Attitudes to economic risk-taking, sensation seeking and values of business students specializing in finance

Financial decision-making rarely follows models derived from economic theory, which postulate that people are rational economic actors. Psychological alternatives abound. The Tversky-Kahneman heuristics approach is dominating, but it needs to be complemented with emotional and personality factors, since cognitive limitations do not provide exhaustive explanations of the psychology of decision-making. In this paper, attitudes to financial risk-taking and gambling are related to sensation seeking, emotional intelligence, the perceived importance of money (money concern), and over-arching values, in groups of students of financial economics (N=93). Comparative data were collected for a group of non-students. Data on values were also available from a random sample of the population. It was found that the students of finance had a positive attitude to economic risk-taking and gambling behavior, a high level of sensation seeking, a low level of money concern, and gave low priority to altruistic values about peace and the environment. The subgroup of participants planning a career in finance showed an even more pronounced interest in gambling.Decision making; finance; risk attitude; financial advice

Emotionell intelligens - teori och empiri i ett psykologiskt perspektiv

Emotioner är av avgörande betydelse i människors liv, men först ganska nyligen har deras betydelse i arbetslivet uppmärksammats. Begreppet emotionell intelligens (EI) som etablerades omkring 1990, och populäriserades i Golemans framgångsrika böcker, är ett exempel på den utvecklingen. Denna rapport handlar om EI men inleds med två avsnitt av mera allmänt slag. Vi ger först en elementär inledning till emotionspsykologin, och därefter en filosofisk och historisk översikt, innan vi går in på EI. EI-begreppet bygger på den omfattande forskning om emotioner som utförts under lång tid, och som vi kortfattat beskriver. Dock finns före 1990 bara en handfull omnämnanden av emotionell intelligens, enligt en sökning i databasen PsycLit 1872-1989. Det finns flera test på EI, även på svenska. Det finns två typer av metoder för att mäta EI: prestation och självrapport. Den sistnämnda ansatsen dominerar i praktiska tillämpningar, och det har funnits vissa psykometriska problem med prestationsmätning av EI. Numera tycks dessa dock ha till stor del övervunnits. Självrapportskalor är ofta påverkade av den tendens att ge en skönmålning av sig själv, som många testade har. Dessutom är det svårt att visa att dessa skalor ger något utöver den väl etablerade femfaktormodellen. I denna rapport beskriver vi forskning som utförts inom ramen för testningar vid HHS som syftade till ett urval baserat på personlighet. Även forskning utanför denna tillämpning beskrivs. Vi konstruerade skalor för att mäta EI, som hade acceptabla psykometriska egenskaper. I studier av begreppsvaliditeten erhölls lovande resultat. I några fall gällde detta även i förhållande till arbetsprestation. Vi fann även att hög EI gick samman med god balans arbete-fritid, låg ensamhet och lågt beroende av att “surfa på nätet”. Litteraturen på området visar på ett starkt ökande intresse för begreppet EI, även om det är sant att en del tillämpningar varit utan stöd i forskningsresultat. Detta är typiskt för personlighetstestning; vi ger en kortfattad beskriving av tre i Sverige ofta använda personlighetstest: Myers-Briggs, Thomas-systemet och OPQ. I framtida forskning är det av intresse att utveckla mått på social intelligens och att närmare studera sambandet mellan emotionell och social intelligens. Den genomgång vi gjort av den mest aktuella forskningen på området, i mars 2003, visar att det finns en stor vitalitet inom området och spännande resultat publiceras nu. EI är knappast en dagslända, utan har kommit för att stanna.Emotionell intelligens; prestationsmått; självrapportering; emotionsteori; social kompetens

The role of empathy in casemanagement: a pilot study

The article taccles the question what role plays empathy in social work practice and how are empathic ability and the skills practitioners draw on for case management intermingled with each other?. A case vignette study shows that social work professionals and students drew upon empathy in responding to the vignette based on a case management task

Prepared enough to practise? Evaluating a study programme in social work

Summary: Following the so-called Bologna reform in Luxembourg, 70 supervisors assessed the knowledge and skills of employees having qualified with a Bachelor’s degree under the recently introduced curriculum in social work and pedagogy. The supervisors were solicited as part of quality assurance regarding the study programme and their assessments were gathered by means of a questionnaire. The University of Luxembourg funded the study. Findings: The newly qualified practitioners were evaluated as adequately trained, while the need was highlighted for a better understanding of the process through which beginner practitioners are socialised into the profession. The results furthermore suggest that practice proficiency extensively draws on generic skills of particular relevance to the social professions. Applications: The findings prompt a more specific focus on generic skills and their role in developing proficiency during practice placements as well as during the first year of employment. Overall, the study serves as one example of how to evaluate the readiness to practise of newly qualified practitioners in the social professions. The output of such skills assessments could inform on any need for curriculum revision at a local level. With a cross-national and comparative approach, evaluations of this kind could potentially guide any adaptations needed in response to the increasing internationalisation of social problems. Keywords Social work, competence, evaluation, fitness to practise, quantitative research, social work education, social work skill